


April's Fools and Traveler's Gifts

by Meridas



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: (is it a cat?), Animal Transformation, Fluff and Crack, Gen, I guess???, Resurrection, The Mighty Nein adopts a cat, kitten cuddles cure all, wholesome April Fool's pranks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-12-31 22:35:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18323318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meridas/pseuds/Meridas
Summary: “Caleb!” she whisper-yells across the bubble. “Look! Look, I just woke up and this little kitty was here with us! Can we keep him?” She makes a cute face at the kitty, and it meows again, even louder.Somewhere behind her, Fjord sneezes in his sleep.--Somehow, a stray kitten ends up with the Mighty Nein. At the end of the day, he turns out to be more familiar than they thought.





	April's Fools and Traveler's Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> Listen... this started as complete crack but then I started writing it because no one stopped me. It's still April 1st on the West Coast okay. Enjoy.

Jester wakes up early to the smell of wet fur. She wrinkles up her nose. “Guys, who let Sprinkle go out in the rain?” she mumbles, scrunching up her eyes. She does not want to get up yet.

No one responds, which probably means they’re all still asleep and she’s the only one who takes care of the pets here. Jester sighs and opens her eyes reluctantly.

Big blue eyes stare morosely at her, not at all like Sprinkle’s little beady button eyes. Jester blinks at it. The tiny kitten blinks back.

“ _Mmmrooooww,_ ” says the kitty.

“Oh my _gosh_ ,” Jester whispers. She puts her hand out, carefully, the way Caleb showed her how to approach kitties who don’t know her yet. “Where did you come from?”

The kitty pushes its head against her fingers. Its fur is all matted up and it’s shivering, but it purrs strongly as soon as she gives it a little scritch under its chin. It looks kind of mangy and brown, but between the wet fur and the pre-dawn darkness under Caleb’s magic bubble spell, she could be wrong. It’s definitely soaking, though, the poor little thing looks like someone dumped it in a puddle and left it there.

“Do you belong to anybody?” she whispers to it. Very carefully, she picks up the kitty and lifts it up to her face. It’s _so tiny,_ she can hold it in both her palms, and she doesn’t even have very big hands. The kitten stands on her palms on wobbly little legs, and meows directly in her face.

“ _Was ist_ —Jester?”

She looks around. “Caleb!” she whisper-yells across the bubble. “Look! Look, I just woke up and this little kitty was here with us! Can we keep him?” She makes a cute face at the kitty, and it meows again, even louder.

Somewhere behind her, Fjord sneezes in his sleep.

* * *

 

In the bright morning light, the Mighty Nein study their newest addition. The mysterious kitten ignores them entirely as it chomps happily at some of their leftover meat. Caleb hopes it isn’t too hard on the little thing’s tummy, but it is all they had. Jester has cleaned up its bedraggled fur as best she could, and they can now see that its pale fur is very fluffy and soft, if patchy in places. Caleb is trying his best to approach their situation rationally instead of scooping the kitten up and cuddling it to his chest and simply letting the others talk amongst themselves.

“We cannot keep another pet,” Fjord insists. “Especially not a cat! We’ve already got a cat! Caleb, don’t you think Frumpkin will get jealous?”

“Frumpkin is a fae cat,” Caleb points out. The kitten makes happy mewling noises as it chews on Beau’s pocket bacon with its tiny needle-like teeth. “He is confident that he is superior to normal cats, he is not going to get jealous. He’s fine.”

“Surely it wouldn’t hurt to keep it around?” Yasha says, her voice very soft. She has a tiny smile on her face as she, too, watches the little cat eat.

“Yeah,” Beau agrees, although she is busy staring at the soft look on Yasha’s face. So much so that she doesn’t even see Nott sneaking more bacon from her pockets for her own breakfast. “I mean, it can’t hurt, right?”

“If it’s a liability I can always, you know,” Nott offers, “ _take care of it?_ ”

“ _Nein_ ,” Caleb says instantly. He bites back his horror at the idea, because he loves Nott dearly, but he does wish that she would appreciate cats more… gently. He hums as he looks for more delicate words. “Let’s not, ah, make too many plans about it, _ja?_ Perhaps the little one is just wandering through.”

“I think he belongs with us,” Jester declares. She is already carefully cutting a ribbon off of her dress. “He snuck into Caleb’s bubble! That must mean that he belongs.”

“How _did_ it do that, anyway?” Fjord says suspiciously. “I thought that wasn’t possible, Caleb. Maybe this thing is some kind of trick.”

Caleb sighs. “If it would put your mind at ease, I could do a few spells to see if it is, in fact, just a cat; or if, as you say, there is something suspicious about it.”

Fjord nods decisively. “That’d be great, Caleb.” He looks sternly at Jester. “Let’s just make sure that there’s not some kinda monster sneaking up on us in our sleep, and don’t get too cozy with it yet, either.”

Jester begins making a tiny flower out of ribbon to go on the kitten’s new collar. Caleb scoops the tiny creature up, and smiles helplessly as it squirms around and curls up in his hands.

“This will take some time to do all of these rituals,” he says mildly, and he promptly walks away to start casting his spells. He was going to do them all ritually, anyway. Getting to hold the cat as he does so is just a coincidence.

* * *

 

Once Caleb returns and declares the cat just a cat, Yasha eagerly holds out her hands. Caleb passes the little creature to her very delicately, and once she takes it she realizes that it has fallen asleep in the middle of his ritual spellcasting. The soft look in Caleb’s eyes is one that doesn’t show itself very often, but Yasha thinks she knows how he feels. The little cat starts making that rumbling in her cupped hands, and she feels warm and soft inside. She smiles down at it.

“He is a boy cat,” Caleb says, “and he is a perfectly normal cat. A bit skinny, somewhat on the neglected side. I think he was feral before this.”

“Does he have a name?” Yasha asks curiously.

Caleb looks at her encouragingly. “I will leave that up to you, Yasha.”

“Wait—what?” she looks back down at the cat. “He doesn’t just… come with a name?”

Caleb’s smile is very small and gentle again. “ _Nein_ , if he has a name it is known only to him. You may call him whatever you wish.”

Yasha considers the little creature in her hands. His fur is mostly a pretty creamy color, now that Jester washed the mud out of it. The little face and the fluffy tail are still dark brown, as if the kitten fell face-first into a puddle.

“Can I call him Clover?” she asks. “He… you know, he kind of looks like those little flowers… that grow in clover fields? The white ones?”

Caleb nods. “That is a very good name, I think.”

Yasha smiles and holds the kitten up close to her chest. He blinks his eyes open, and waves his tiny paws at her hair. “I like him.”

* * *

 

Clover the kitten is much more energetic after his snooze through Caleb’s spells, much to Fjord’s dismay. Beau pats him sympathetically on the back as he moves off to take point, riding solo instead of taking the reins on their cart today. They’ve still got a lot of ground to cover, as he reminds them somewhat bitterly, cat notwithstanding.

Beau takes control of the cart instead, since she figures she’s the least interested in the new cat. Yeah, it’s pretty cute. But Caleb and Jester and Yasha are all totally enthralled by it, so she’ll let them coo over it while she drives.

She only sneaks glances over her shoulder sometimes. Her eyes are definitely on the road. All the time. She’s totally not distracted by Yasha’s little smile or the adorable faces Jester keeps making at the kitten. Not at all.

Beau is so good at keeping her eyes on the road, in fact, that she doesn’t even turn around when she starts to hear giggling back there. She focuses on being a good driver, letting the rest of them have their fun back there. She’s manning the horses and keeping them on track and _what the hell is tugging on her shirt_.

She manages not to jump up and flail around only because she’s holding the reins. Instead, she holds very still, freezing in her slight hunch in her seat. “Guys,” she calls, very calmly. “Hey. Get over your cat thing and somebody tell me _what the fuck is on my back?_ ”

Jester’s giggle is the only answer that she gets.

The tugging sensation continues up her back, along with little pinpricks that almost feel like Nott’s claws. Beau looks straight ahead at the road. _That little—_

Tiny kitten claws tug at the edge of her collar. They scratch against her neck and she grits her teeth because those little fuckers are _sharp_ , but she isn’t about to flinch at _kitten claws_. She feels a wobbly, unbalanced scrabble at her neck, and then the tiny weight finally comes to rest, standing proudly on her shoulder.

Beau turns her head to look at the little fluffball. “Are you done?” she asks it. The kitten ignores her. His tail waves around, tickling her ear. Beau looks back out at the road, and lets just a little smile creep across her face.

“Okay, but if you’re gonna stand on me you’ve gotta pull your weight. Tell me if you see anything suspicious.”

“ _Mrow!_ ”

* * *

 

As the day wears on, Caleb does his best not to hoard the time with their new cat friend. He settles himself in their cart with Frumpkin around his shoulders, a book in hand, and tries very hard to act like he doesn’t spend every moment wishing that Clover would come closer to him again. The little cat clearly enjoys Yasha’s large, careful hands petting at his soft fur, and he spends the early afternoon tearing happily around after the jingling bits and bobs that Nott pulls out of her pockets for Jester to fashion into cat toys. He spends a good half-hour entranced by the greenish lights that reflect from Clay’s armor onto the floor of the cart when the sun hits it right, and the rest of the hour sitting perched on the firbolg’s knee as Caduceus carries on a full conversation with the cat. Caleb has no idea if Clover actually responds, or if Caduceus is simply being polite, in his own way. Either way, he will certainly not be jealous.

That doesn’t mean that he isn’t delighted when Jester picks Clover up and deposits him on Caleb’s stomach. “I want to draw him,” she says, “and he isn’t holding still, so you keep him looking very nice and cute until I’m done, okay?”

“ _Ja_ , okay,” Caleb agrees immediately. Clover stumbles his way up Caleb’s shirt, apparently still too young for any kind of natural grace. It’s very cute. Caleb sets his book aside, so that he can run his fingertips gently down the kitten’s back.

Next to his ear, Frumpkin yawns widely. Clover looks up at him with wide blue eyes, and Caleb has a brilliant idea.

“Can you do a blep?” he asks the kitten. He sends Frumpkin the mental command to demonstrate this skill to Clover, and from the corner of his eye he sees his familiar’s cute little tongue stick out.

Clover sinks his little kitten claws into the front of Caleb’s shirt as he kneads at him happily. He does not copy the blep, however.

Caleb glances over at Jester, hard at work on her sketchbook. He looks back at the kitten, and says once again, “Can you do a blep? Like Frumpkin, _ja?_ Like this big cat?” He reaches up and gives Frumpkin a scritch on the ears. Clover plops down on Caleb’s chest and blinks up at him.

Caleb sticks his own tongue out slightly. Clover rolls onto his back, and nearly topples right off Caleb’s chest. He scoops him back up, settling the kitten’s light weight back onto his chest. “Okay, perhaps we will work on this,” he promises. “You should learn this skill, it will get you far in life, you know.”

Clover flops over on his side and begins purring, his tiny body vibrating against Caleb’s chest. Caleb smiles back at him, petting gently across his fluffy fur.

“Perhaps you are right,” he says, as if the kitten will understand him the way Frumpkin does. “You are pretty cute even without doing a blep. You still have these tiny paws…” he takes one little foot delicately between his fingers, waving it gently in the air. Clover purrs louder, and bats at his fingers with the other paw. “Yes, look at you! You have _kleine Tintentröpfchen,_ like you walked in some of my ink. Did you walk in some ink on your way here?”

He presses very gently on the soft pad of Clover’s little paw. Tiny, needle-sharp claws just barely peek out from the dark fluff there. Caleb gasps dramatically. “Look at that! Look at these little claws, you are very fierce with them, _ja?_ You could take on lots of foes with these.”

Clover wiggles out of his grip, and Caleb lets him go immediately. The little cat rolls over again and gets to his feet, and wobbles his way closer to Caleb’s face. Caleb can only smile helplessly as the kitten sticks his nose into his face, sniffing curiously all over him and still purring up a storm. The kitten licks his nose, and before he can contain it Caleb feels himself laugh.

The kitten puts his paws up on Caleb’s mouth and licks his nose again. His raspy little tongue tickles, and his paws almost skid out from under him when Caleb laughs again. His tiny head is actually very hard when it conks into Caleb’s cheekbone, but Caleb manages to catch him before he tumbles back to the floor of the cart.

“There we are, I don’t need a washing that badly, surely.” He settles Clover back onto his chest, petting him once more. Clover settles down again in a blissed-out kitty sprawl, his eyes sliding closed. Soon enough, Caleb feels his purr start up again, a rapturous little rumble right over his heart.

Caleb smiles and picks up his book again, one-handed. “Maybe you will stay still and nap for Jester if I read to you,” he says quietly, thumbing back to his page. “Let’s see… _The Five Properties of Major Transmutation_ , yes, this always puts Beauregard right to sleep…”

* * *

 

When they finally reach a halt for the night, Jester takes Clover back while Caleb gets out his spellbook and his components for their Tiny Hut. She puts Clover up on her head, where he can sit perfectly between her horns and he can see everything from a new perspective. Caleb shakes his head fondly, and begins casting his spell for their shelter. Jester looks around, and sees Fjord hanging back by the cart, out of the spell bubble’s range.

“Jester, come on,” he says when she approaches him. “You know I’m— _achoo!_ —fuck, I’m allergic to cats—”

“We have to all stand by Caleb,” Jester insists, dragging him over to the rest. She smacks her hands gently to either side of his face. “Don’t be a _baby_ ,” she adds, reaching out to the Traveler, and her hands glow with green light.

Fjord draws back, then makes a face like he is about to sneeze. He freezes. They all wait, looking at him to see if the sneeze will happen.

There’s no sneeze. Clover meows.

“See?” Jester beams. “There’s nothing a nice little restoration spell can’t take care of!” She reaches up to her head and pats gently at Clover. He was a good buddy just now, and he should get pats as a reward. “Now you can both sleep in here and Fjord won’t get all rained on like a dummy, and little Clover can stay with us always!”

Jester hears a laugh, carried like a breeze and gone just as quickly, but leaving her warm and elated. She winks an aside to Nott. “At least until the Traveler thinks it’s funny to have him allergic again,” she whispers loudly, and Nott cackles at the unimpressed look on Fjord’s face.

Caleb finishes his incantation and watches as the transparent dome spreads out over their heads. Between Jester’s horns, Clover stands up on his hind legs and waves his front paws at the new ceiling. He is still very far away from it, Jester being as short as she is, but the effort is very cute. She holds very still for him so that he doesn’t fall off.

As the seven of them settle down to sleep, Jester shows Clover the sketches she did earlier that day. “This is why I think you should stay,” she whispers to him. “See? You make Caleb smile. That’s a really special talent, you know.” She kisses the top of his fluffy head. “We will take good care of you, I promise.”

* * *

 

Caleb wakes from the beginnings of a familiar nightmare before it can even start. He blinks in the dim light of his Tiny Hut, feeling the tension of his dream seep out of him. In the back of his mind he is aware that it’s close to midnight.

A small, cold nose touches his cheek. Caleb jumps, then realizes that it’s the same sensation that just broke him out of his sleep. He turns his head to the side, coming face-to-face with the kitten.

“ _Hallo, Kätzchen_ ,” he whispers. Clover crawls up his shoulder, his small, sharp claws digging new pinpricks into Caleb’s coat. The kitten settles on his chest again, purring quietly.

Caleb sighs and pets at the soft fur. Frumpkin is accustomed to his nightmares, or Caleb is too accustomed to Frumpkin—normally his familiar does not wake him up until he is much deeper in dreams. At the moment, Frumpkin is still curled up against his neck, his flank rising and falling softly with sleep.

Feeling very much awake, Caleb sits up carefully, so as not to disturb his companions. He cups his hand around Clover’s little body, keeping him cradled against his chest. “ _Danke sehr,_ ” he says quietly. He pets his free hand over the downy-soft fur on top of the kitten’s head.

“I hope you are alright with us, you know.” Caleb looks down at the tiny creature in his hands, at the way it purrs and nuzzles trustingly into his chest. “We are a pack of assholes, you know? We can barely take care of ourselves much of the time.” He sighs and rubs his hand across his face. It is midnight, and he is talking to a cat who is not even his familiar. “It’s probably better—”

But Caleb never finishes his thought.

Suddenly the dome of his spell flashes bright green, without Caleb’s command. A laugh dances past them, like a whirl of smoke that smells of caramel apples, and Jester sits bolt upright with a cry of “Traveler!”

Caleb, however, has more immediate matters at hand. Where he previously had a small handful of cat, he now has a lapful of gangly, disoriented, _very purple_ tiefling.

“ _Was_ ,” he says helplessly.

Mollymauk Tealeaf stares back at him. “What?”

“What do you mean, _what_ , why don’t _you_ explain _what—_ ”

“What makes you think _I_ have _the foggiest blessed idea—_ ”

“Molly!” Jester shrieks, and the whole bubble comes awake as Jester tackles Mollymauk, and incidentally Caleb, in an enthusiastic hug.

Chaos reigns inside their little bubble. There is confusion and there are tears and there are giggles as Jester, gasping, explains the dream she had, the best kind of prank to reward the Traveler’s best cleric and her friends. Yasha hugs Molly silently, with all the tenderness with which she held a tiny kitten in her hands that morning.

“How much do you remember about today?” Caleb asks, his voice still weak with shock.

For a moment, Mollymauk just looks at him. Then, without any words at all, he does a blep.

**Author's Note:**

> ETA: once again there is beautiful lovely adorable art by [artlyloser](https://artlyloser.tumblr.com/)!! Go check her out on tumblr!
> 
>  


End file.
